Avodah Zarah 55a (נה.) — the Talmud in English

And so he says Zephaniah 1] !(pamud.bmp "Exact page location") "

Tsfania 1] !(pamud.bmp "Mesto tochnoi privyazki stranitsy") "<!--

I will utterly consume everything from upon the face of the earth, says the Lord,"

The Holy One, blessed be He, says to the prophet Zephaniah: Does this mean that He will consume everything?! And it says there further: "

I will consume man and beast; I will consume the birds of the heavens

and the fish of the sea, and the stumbling blocks together with the wicked" [-

everything through which the wicked stumble]".

And we expound:

Does this mean that because the wicked stumble through them—

He will destroy them from the world?!

Does this mean that He will consume man and beast, the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, and everything through which the wicked stumble?!

But surely

even

they serve man, the continuation of the verse:] "

prodolzhenie stikha:] "

And I will cut off man from upon the face of the earth, says the Lord."

And there, in the continuation of the verse, it is stated that the Holy One, blessed be He, will indeed stretch out His hand and cut off the idol worshippers, together with their priests and kohanim.

And concerning this matter, the Gemara brings another debate.

Agrippa the military commander a Roman gentile in the days of King Agrippa]

rimlyanin, zhivshii vo vremena tsarya Agrippy]

asked Rabban Gamliel: It is written in your Torah Deuteronomy 4], "

Devarim 4]: "

For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God!"

And he asked him:

Does

a person

become jealous—

except for a sage in relation to a sage, a mighty man in relation to a mighty man, or a wealthy man in relation to a wealthy man?!

If so, what is His jealousy concerning idols?! Are they comparable to Him?! Are they equal to Him?!

He said to him,

Rabban Gamliel:

I will give you a parable: To what can this be compared?

To a man who married another woman

in addition

to his wife.

When the second wife

is superior to her—

the

first wife

does not become jealous of her,

and she does not resent her husband; but when the second wife

is inferior to her—

she becomes jealous of her,

and resents him, hating him.

The explanation of the parable is as follows: The Holy One, blessed be He, is not jealous of worthless idols, images made by human hands; rather, He is jealous of those who abandon God and the King of the universe to worship idols.

The Gemara brings Rabbi Akiva's parable concerning idols.

A Jewish man

asked Rabbi Akiva, whose name was

Zunin: My heart and your heart know The version in Ein Yaakov:

variant v Ein Ya'akov:

know]

that idolatry has no substance,

that it has no reality! My question is:

But we see,

we see

men who go when they are dismembered,

crippled men whose limbs have come apart because of illness, who go to idolatry,

and they come

and return

when they are joined,

with their limbs joined together—that is, they are healed there.—

What is the reason?

Why does this happen, since it has no power at all?

He said to him,

Rabbi Akiva:

I will give you a parable: To what can this be compared? To a trustworthy man who lived in a city, and all the people of his city would deposit things with him

as deposits

without witnesses.

And one man came

and did not rely on his trustworthiness,

and deposited with him in the presence of witnesses.

Once, he forgot and deposited with him without witnesses.

The trustworthy man's wife said to him:

nadezhnogo cheloveka:

Come, let us deny having received it!

We will not lose our reputation for trustworthiness, because he always makes his deposits with us in the presence of witnesses; they will believe us that this time he did not deposit it with us!

He said to her: Just because this fool acted improperly—

should we lose our trustworthiness?!

Even if we are not suspected in the eyes of others, we will not betray our trustworthiness.

The explanation of the parable is:

Even

with idols—

so

it is:

These afflictions,

such as those whose limbs have come apart because of illness,

when they are sent against a person, they are adjured,

from Heaven, and they are told:

You shall go only on a particular day! And you shall leave only on a particular day and at a particular hour, and through

a particular

doctor and through a particular medicine! Once the time has arrived for them to leave—

this man went to a house of idolatry !

The afflictions said: It is proper—

that we should not leave!

So that it should not appear as though we left through the agency of the idols.

And they say again: Just because this fool acts improperly—

should we lose our oath,

by which they adjured us to leave?!

The Gemara explains: What Rabbi Akiva said, that the afflictions are adjured and fulfill their oath—

this is what Rabbi Yohanan said:

What

is the meaning

of that which is written Deuteronomy 28], "

Devarim 28]: "

and evil and faithful diseases"?

What is their evil, and what is their faithfulness?—

They are evil in their mission,

as they afflict the body,

and faithful in their oath,

as they fulfill their oath.

And concerning this matter, the Gemara brings another statement of the amoraim.

Rava bar Rav Yitzḥak said to Rav Yehuda: There is

indeed

a house of idolatry in our region,

in our place,

where, when the world requires rain,

when the world needs rain,

it appears to them in a dream

and appears to its worshippers in a dream,

and says to them: Slaughter a man for me and I will bring you rain—

slaughter a man for me and I will bring you rain! And they indeed did so:

They slaughtered a man for it, and rain came,

and rain came!

He said to him,

Rav Yehuda: It is good that you asked me this question while I am still alive.

Now,

now,

if I had died,

if I were already dead,

I would not have told you this matter,

I would not have told you this.

For Rav said: What

is the meaning

of that which is written Deuteronomy 4]: "You shall greatly beware for your souls... lest you raise your eyes heavenward and see the sun, the moon, and the stars, the entire host of the heavens, and you be led astray and bow down to them and worship them,

Devarim 4]: «Beregis'te ochen' samikh sebya... i chtoby ty ne podnyal glaz k nebesam i, uvid ev solntse, lunu, zvezdy i vse nebesnoe voinstvo, ne sovratilsya, ne poklonilsya im i ne sluzhil im,

which the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples

under the entire heaven"?

What is the meaning of “the Lord has allotted them to all the peoples”?

This teaches that He made them slippery through words,

the Holy One, blessed be He, allows them to err through idols,

in order to drive them from the world,

and punish them for worshipping idols.

And

this exposition

is what Reish Lakish said:

What is the meaning of that which is written Proverbs 3], "

Mishlei 3]: "

If it concerns the scorners, He will scorn, but to the humble He grants grace"—"If it concerns the scorners," that is, one who

prikhodit oskvernit',

comes to defile

himself and become wicked—"He will scorn":

an opening is provided for him

the opening of defilement, so that he may enter through it, and he is given the opportunity; he is not prevented from Heaven, nor is he restrained, and he is not assisted either. "But to the humble," one who

To the humble,” one who

comes to purify

himself—"He grants grace":

he is assisted,

an opening is prepared for him, and the Holy One, blessed be He, grants him grace and assistance.

Similarly, the gentiles who come to defile themselves and worship the entire host of the heavens—He makes them slippery through words and opens an opening for them—

And therefore the idol succeeded in bringing rain when they slaughtered a man before it.

From here until the end of the tractate, the Mishna discusses the laws of “wine of libation” and the laws of “the anonymous wine of gentiles.”

We learned in the Mishna in the second chapter [29b]: “These are items belonging to gentiles that are forbidden, and their prohibition is a prohibition of benefit: wine.”

The Torah prohibited drinking “wine of libation,” which is wine poured before an idolatry. It is prohibited not only for drinking but also for benefit; and the prohibition of benefit is likewise a prohibition by Torah law, as explained there.

The Sages decreed concerning the “anonymous wine of gentiles,” whose having been poured before idolatry is unknown, on account of “their daughters.” That is: They sought to distance Jews from the drinking parties of gentiles, since closeness to them leads to sexual relations with their daughters.

They similarly decreed concerning their bread and their oil, and other such things that lead to closeness of mind. But with wine they were especially stringent and prohibited it even for benefit.

Several reasons were stated for this matter. Some of our Sages hold that since wine of libation is prohibited for benefit by Torah law, when the Sages came to decree concerning anonymous wine on account of their daughters, they decreed that its prohibition should be as stringent as that of wine of libation, as though it had certainly been poured before idolatry. Therefore, it is prohibited for benefit.

Some of our Sages explain that if they had prohibited it only for drinking, there would be concern that unlearned people who saw others benefiting from it would come to permit benefit even from actual wine of libation. Therefore, they equated its law with that of wine of libation.

That is: They would not have issued a decree merely because of the concern for wine of libation—either because such wine was not sufficiently common, or because a gentile would not sell his wine after pouring it before idolatry. Rather, the principal reason for the decree was their daughters, and they gave the wine the full stringency of wine of libation.

Some of our Sages hold that at first they indeed prohibited it only for drinking, on account of their daughters. But the court in later generations saw that people had become accustomed to pouring wine frequently; therefore, they added to the decree and prohibited it even for benefit.

They were further stringent and prohibited even Jewish wine that a gentile touched. This prohibition applies even to benefit. As for the reason the Sages prohibited a gentile's contact with wine, some of the early Sages hold that it too was intended to distance Jews from gentiles and their daughters: Since contact with a gentile is prohibited, they would not come to drink with him; and even if they did drink with him, they would not come to closeness of mind, since they would have to be careful to avoid his contact.

Others of our Sages hold that a gentile's contact with Jewish wine has nothing to do with their daughters; they prohibited it only because of concern that he might have poured it before idolatry, lest the gentile have performed libation through his contact.

Our Mishna deals with the law governing a gentile's contact with wine. It discusses grapes that have been trodden and from which liquid has flowed: From what point is it called “wine,” so that it becomes prohibited through a gentile's contact?

In the winepress where grapes are trodden to make wine, there is a “pit,” into which the wine collects after the grapes are trodden. The floor around the mouth of the pit is slightly sloped, so that the wine will flow into it. In this pit there is either a vessel to receive the wine, or it is coated with lime, so that the wine is preserved within it and not a drop is lost.

The beginning of the treading of the grapes is done by hand, and the wine begins to flow down into the pit. Afterwards, the grapes are taken and piled in a tappuaḥ, a heap of collected trodden grapes, and those grapes are pressed with a thick wooden beam. From there, the wine descends through a pipe into the pit.

The place where the grapes are trodden and the tappuaḥ are located is called the “upper winepress,” and, in abbreviated form, the “winepress.”

The tanna of our Mishna [“the first Mishna”] holds that all the wine found in the winepress is not prohibited through a gentile's contact, because it is not yet called wine; it is called wine only after it descends into the pit.

Our Mishna deals with a gentile who trod grapes [with his foot] in the winepress, and the Jew purchases the winepress from him.

Mishna:

One may purchase,

it is permitted to purchase,

a trodden winepress

together with the grapes and the wine,

from an idol worshipper.

The wine has not become prohibited through the gentile's contact.

Even though he,

the gentile,

takes in his hand

the grapes after they have been trodden and the wine has already begun to flow from them,

and places

the grapes

in the tappuaḥ,

so that the gentile has touched the wine at the beginning of its flow—in any event,

he does not the version of the Bach:

variant Bakha:

does not ]

make wine of libation until it descends into the pit,

but not during the earlier stages, before it descends into the pit.

When

it descends into the pit,

if the gentile touches it,

what is in the pit—

is prohibited, but the remainder is permitted,

even for drinking.

Following the view of the tanna of our Mishna, that wine of libation does not come into being until it descends into the pit, another halakha emerges:

One may tread,

it is permitted for a Jew to hire himself out to tread grapes

with an idol worshipper in the winepress,

since it is not yet prohibited wine of libation, which is prohibited for benefit, and it is still permitted even for drinking.

But if we held that wine becomes prohibited through a gentile's contact while it is still in the winepress, before descending into the pit, it would be prohibited to tread grapes with a gentile, because the Jew would be taking payment for prohibited benefit and benefiting from wine prohibited for benefit.

Likewise, it is not prohibited to tread grapes with a gentile on the grounds that the Jew is “assisting those who commit transgressions,” since there is a prohibition against rendering the produce of the Land of Israel impure, as will be explained.

This is because the gentile does not commit a transgression when he renders it impure: Gentiles were not commanded to preserve the produce of the Land of Israel in a state of purity, and a gentile who renders it impure does not violate a prohibition.

Apparently, we have another reason to prohibit it:

Because the gentile's winepress is impure, the grapes become impure through the winepress after the beginning of their treading [and this renders them fit to receive impurity, since the wine that emerges at the beginning of the treading “renders” the grapes fit to receive impurity. As is well known, no food can receive impurity until it has first been moistened with one of the seven liquids, one of which is wine, which renders foods fit to receive impurity]—

It follows that the Jew who assists him himself causes the produce of the Land of Israel to become impure.

Nevertheless, the tanna of our Mishna permits it, since the produce had already become impure at the beginning of the gentile's treading; therefore, the Jew contributes nothing further to its impurity.